Vampire Instinct by Joey W. Hill Page A

feet and a waist you could put your hands around. A little hourglass. Your preferred type, right?” There was a trace of amusement in Danny’s voice. “When Dev travels, she keeps me company like a favorite doll, gives me blood in bed at dawn. We had to keep a close eye on the hands to make the more thickheaded of them behave around her.”
    “She was a tease?” He wasn’t seeing much of a flirt in the hollow-eyed child who’d gotten off that plane.
    “Certainly not.” The nearly maternal offense bemused him. “Just the contrary. Sweet and honest to a fault. That kind of freshness awakens all sorts of wickedness in a man’s mind.”
    “Not this one.”
    Danny snorted. “Spare me. I’ve seen you around women. Though not for a long time. When was the last time you left that island?”
    “I come and go as my cats need me. We’re talking about her. What is it you’re expecting me to do for her? Straight out, now.” Though he knew asking a woman to come straight out with something was like asking a cow to jump over the moon, there were times Danny could be as direct as a man. Fortunately, this was one of those times.
    “I want you to help her see what you see. You save lives all the time, Mal. You bring in souls from terrible, dark places, and give them a chance to embrace some semblance of the life they were supposed to have.” She hesitated. “I’m not so certain she and the fledglings aren’t in that same place. We weren’t unloading her on you. She needed to get away. We’re still figuring out how to scrub Willis’s blood, and hers, off the barn floor. And the walls. The hands were creeping around, treating her like porcelain, and Mrs. Rupert could barely set a plate in front of her without bursting into tears.”
    When Danny paused, Mal was surprised that she herself seemed to be taking a steadying breath. But of course, she’d made the decision to take in the fledglings. Handling them while running a sheep station and a vampire territory had to have been more than a load. Then they’d lost control and Danny had lost one person, nearly lost Elisa. Mal was still surprised the girl had not shown more physical scars, but Victor had apparently taken out his brutality on her in the form of rape and broken bones. The second-mark healing ability had been able to handle the rest. The physical part at least.
    On an earlier phone call, Dev had told Mal more details of what had happened. At the time Mal had thought Danny had merely delegated the call to him while she handled other matters. Now, hearing the emotion lashed down in her voice, he realized Danny had gotten closer to the situation than she’d let on. Dev said she’d handled Victor’s execution personally.
    Opened up his cage, and walked right in before I expected it. She’d told me to wait at the house, but of course I followed her. He tried to get past her, and I didn’t even see her move. She was just suddenly holding him against her, that stake buried in his chest, body still twitching as he slid down and she let him go, watched him die. Then she told us to drag him out and let him burn. She didn’t say a word to the others, but they’re kind of afraid of adult vampires anyhow.
    Christ, Mal, seeing the way they looked at us. The girls went back to sitting in their cages, rocking and whimpering to themselves, and Jeremiah turned to face the wall . . . It’s a bad business. And Danny suffers the most over Elisa. She came up with the idea of letting the girl watch over them, but she never expected it to become so much a part of her. Or for it to come to this.
    “I should have come with her.” Danny had resumed talking, her voice steady again. “But I have a damnable meeting with my territory overlords, and I’ve got one causing problems in Perth. I would have said the hell with it and come anyway, but Dev pointed out she might do better with someone less emotionally close to what happened to her. I trust you to do right by her. I don’t